ALAMOSA, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball team combined for 30 hits, 12 of which were for extra-bases, including four home runs and received two more solid pitching efforts to dominate host Adams State University in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday here at the ASU Softball Field.
 
The nation's third-ranked Mavericks, who improved to 16-0 overall and to 6-0 in RMAC play with the wins, scored 14 runs in the sixth inning of the 22-4, run-rule opener and then nearly got a shutout from junior pitcher Kimbri Herring to win the second game of the twin-bill by a 6-1 margin.
 
The 22 runs in the series opener are the most the Mavericks have scored in an RMAC games for 21 years.
 
The Grizzlies fell to 3-13 overall and 0-2 in RMAC play with the losses.
 
Game 1
 
Seven different Mavericks recorded multiple hits as Brooke Hodgson and Zoe Pakes hit home runs while Alexandria Dufour tied an RMAC record by legging out a pair of triples.  Kellie Mrofcza also hit a triple while AnnMarie Torres and Pakes added doubles.
 
Meanwhile, McKenzie Surface pitched five-plus innings while striking out nine Grizzlies to improve to 9-0.
 
Dufour and Hodgson each went 3-for-4 and combined for seven RBI and eight runs scored.  Mrofcza and Maggie Manwarren also had three hits a piece while Torres, Pakes and Bailey Kleespies, who came off the bench, recorded two each.
 
The Grizzlies also committed five errors, two of which came in the top of the first as the Mavericks jumped out to a quick lead.
 
Hodgson's 2-run homer and Mrofcza's run-scoring triple were the highlights of the 3-run third inning as the Mavericks extended the lead to 5-0.
 
Dufour then plated Manwarren with a 1-out fourth-inning triple before scoring another run on a Hodgson ground-out as the Mavericks increased the lead to 7-0 through 3 ½ innings.
 
The Grizzlies would get on the board with two runs in the bottom of the fourth before Pakes led off the top of the fifth with her home run, the fifth of her season, to put CMU up 8-2.  The Grizzlies would get another run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 8-3 but watched the wheels come off in the sixth as Manwarren came to the plate three times in the marathon inning, recording a pair of infield singles before being retired as the hit-parade came to an end.
 
Impressively, each of CMU's first seven hitters in the lineup and eight total Mavericks reached base on each of their first two trips to the plate in the frame.
 
Herring then came on in relief of Surface with two runners on and nobody out in the bottom of the second to close out the win.  She tallied two strikeouts in that stretch.
 
Game 2
 
She then continued that momentum into the second game as the Stansbury, Utah native tallied a career-high 12 strikeouts while spreading out four hits. 
 
Herring (4-0) retired 17 of the first 19 Grizzlies she faced in the game allowing just two 2-out hits, both of which were triples, in the first and third innings.  A 2-out sixth-inning single by the Grizzlies also went to waste.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick offensive attack was doing just fine as Hodgson hit a 2-out single to right center before scoring on a Torres double to center in the top of the first to give the Mavericks an early 1-0 lead.
 
CMU, which has now outscored opponents 25-2 in the first inning this season, then added another run in the second as Sarah Staudle recorded her first career RBI just five days after registering her first career hit to drive in Kleespies, who had led off with a single before moving to second on the first of two straight Grizzly errors.
 
Kaila Jacobi would add a lead-off homer in the fourth to increased the lead to 3-0 before Jacobi and Kleespies each hit doubles in a 2-run sixth that inflated the lead to 5-0.
 
Hodgson then capped the scoring with a seventh-inning homer before the Grizzlies would break up Herring's shutout in the bottom of the seventh with a single run thanks to two hits with the bat and another two with ball-to-player contact (hit by pitch).
 
Nevertheless, the Mavericks had a 10-5 edge in hits in that game and played both without committing an error.
 
Hodgson, who was 2-for-4 and Jacobi, who went 2-for-3 led the offensive attack.
 
The teams will close out the 4-game series with another doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at noon.